GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Knicks forward Lance Thomas had surgery on his left knee Thursday for the removal of loose bodies.

He will begin rehab immediately and will be re-evaluated in four weeks, the team said.

Thomas, the longest-tenured Knick, did not play Wednesday against the Hawks.

"I don’t know how long it’s necessarily been bothering him because he’s so tough you can’t figure out but in definitely the last week or so you could see it was started to really bug him," coach David Fizdale said after the Knicks' practice on Friday. "And he wanted to hold off as long as he could on it but I think it got to a point where he just wanted to clean some stuff up."

The 30-year-old was averaging 3.9 points and 2.2 rebounds per game through 11 contests. Thomas started the first five games at power forward before Noah Vonleh supplanted him in the lineup.

Thomas' injury takes away some of the Knicks' depth, but Fizdale has an idea of how he'll make up for it.

"With Kevin [Knox] coming back, he fills in a lot of those minutes," Fizdale said. "Obviously Mario [Hezonja] can fill in some of those minutes and I can play the bigs together some so we’ll plug those gaps. But the biggest thing is that we get that knee healthy, and Lance is our leader, and we just get him back feeling good and get him back in that locker room with his voice."